45th NHL All-Star Game
The 45th NHL All-Star Game was held in Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York, home of the New York Rangers (who would later win the Stanley Cup in the 1993-94 NHL season) on January 22, 1994. Super Skills Competition The Western Conference would win the Skills Competition for the second straight season. In the individual events, Al Iafrate won the Hardest Shot event for the second straight season, while both John Vanbiesbrouck and Patrick Roy would share the Goaltenders Competition victory. In addition, the Puck Control Relay event would be introduced as part of the individual competition with its first winner being Russ Courtnall. Individual Event Winners *'Puck Control Relay': Russ Courtnall (Dallas Stars) *'Fastest Skater': Sergei Fedorov (Detroit Red Wings) - 13.525 seconds *'Accuracy Shooting': Brendan Shanahan (St. Louis Blues) - 4 hits, 5 shots *'Hardest Shot': Al Iafrate (Washington Capitals) - 102.7 mph *'Goaltenders Competition': John Vanbiesbrouck (Florida Panthers)/Patrick Roy (Montreal Canadiens) (4 GA and 16 shots) Game Background A capacity crowd saw Ottawa Senators' rookie Alexei Yashin score with 3:42 left in the third period, to give the Eastern Conference a 9–8 victory. The Western Conference were leading 8–6 in the third period until Quebec Nordiques' centre Joe Sakic scored his first All-Star Game goal to cut the lead to 8–7. Florida Panthers' centre Bob Kudelski scored with 6:01 left to tie the game at 8–8, before Yashin would score the eventual game-winner. New York Rangers' goaltender Mike Richter was named All-Star M.V.P. after he turned away 19 of 21 shots in the second period, including three saves on breakwaways by sniper Pavel Bure. Kudelski (who had played on the Los Angeles Kings' 1993 Stanley Cup runner-up team) and teammate Vanbiesbrouck were the first representatives of any first-year expansion team since 1975 to play in an All-Star Game. The Senators and the Tampa Bay Lightning also sent their first representatives to the All-Star Game this year. Kudelski was added onto the Eastern Conference lineup due to injuries to Mario Lemieux, who along with Ed Belfour were the highest-profile players among the several players on the rosters who were unable to play due to injury. (Curtis Joseph was the only injured player who attended this game) Other first time All-Stars in New York included all three Western Conference goaltenders: the Toronto Maple Leafs' Felix Potvin (who started in place of Belfour), the San Jose Sharks' Arturs Irbe (Joseph's injury replacement) and the Kings' Kelly Hrudey (the game's losing goaltender, who gave up the winning goal in the third period and whose head coach, Barry Melrose, was also the Western Conference's head coach). This was the most recent All-Star Game in which the head coaches were also the head coaches of the defending conference champions (Pat Burns being the Eastern Conference's head coach). Game Summary *'Referee': Bill McCreary *'Linesmen': Gord Broseker and Pat Dapuzzo *'Television': NBC and CBC Rosters Roster Notes *Jaromir Jagr was voted as a starter, but was not able to play due to injury. He was replaced by Mark Messier in the starting lineup. *Mark Howe was originally selected by the commissioner, but was not able to play due to injury. He was replaced by Joe Mullen. Category:NHL All-Star Games